Gabby0878 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Sorry if this is the wrong place to post (although have asked this question on specific away match threads) but I wanted to see if other fans have struggled to get hold of away tickets this season? Over the years I have never had any trouble getting tickets to away games (non ST holder, but strong booking history home and away), unless it was against the Blues or at a newly promoted team i.e. Blackpool (due to size of allocation and infrequency of fixture). Normally most games even go to general sale, however this season the vast majority of away days have sold out before non-season ticket holders get the chance to buy. I don’t want this to descend into an argument of who is the better fan, as I think everyone widely accepts that if you have a season ticket you should 100% get priority, I just wondered why we have sold out so much. I read somewhere that the Premiership was making clubs invest £500,000 for their away fans, and Villa had put on free travel to all games. Is this true? I presume our strong away performance this season has also helped. Wondered if anyone could shed any light on this? Would be gutted if my chances of going to away games were over for the foreseeable future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Villa put free coaches on for ten games I think. I also think we take the initial allocation offered which is smaller, and then maybe take a larger one due to demand. I'm in your position as a non ST holder but decent booking history; managed to get to Liverpool, Everton, and Newcastle this season and I think (not sure) that all sold out soon after I bought my tickets. It's good that we have such a great away following though! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan4Life Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 (edited) Sorry if this is the wrong place to post (although have asked this question on specific away match threads) but I wanted to see if other fans have struggled to get hold of away tickets this season? Over the years I have never had any trouble getting tickets to away games (non ST holder, but strong booking history home and away), unless it was against the Blues or at a newly promoted team i.e. Blackpool (due to size of allocation and infrequency of fixture). Normally most games even go to general sale, however this season the vast majority of away days have sold out before non-season ticket holders get the chance to buy. I don’t want this to descend into an argument of who is the better fan, as I think everyone widely accepts that if you have a season ticket you should 100% get priority, I just wondered why we have sold out so much. I read somewhere that the Premiership was making clubs invest £500,000 for their away fans, and Villa had put on free travel to all games. Is this true? I presume our strong away performance this season has also helped. Wondered if anyone could shed any light on this? Would be gutted if my chances of going to away games were over for the foreseeable future. It's about picking and choosing the smaller games, until this season i hadn't gone away game regularly since 90's (Just Wigan away and Bradford away last season) now i have pencilled in 7 this season! I am a season ticket holder and didn't stand chance to get bigger game tickets, so work yourself up with smaller games (as most going on general sale like Southampton (Away) Newcastle (away) Man City (Away) Fulham (Away) etc etc, the only one that sold out quickly is Palace (Away) Started with West Ham away that went on general sale (in end as well) so that would have been a good choice for lot fans to start their history up! then did Fulham away when it went to general sale, then been to Stoke, Newcastle, Cardiff, and going to Palace, Swansea and going to get one for Spurs away. It's about building from the bottom upwards which i have done this season, so next season can go to bigger games without issue as start with 5+ away games from previous season. Quite a lot of away games have gone to general sale this season! also Man City away is on general sale right now.. I would keep checking Villa site if i was you and see when tickets go on general sale, and grab them online at 8:55am (the turn systems on at 8:55am) on the day of the general sale to guarentee a ticket and work your history back up, rather than concentrating on certain bigger games and just go for smaller games where less Villa fans will be interested in going) Edited March 26, 2014 by Villan4Life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 You can usually get tickets from ST holders who aren't going, maybe through this site or people you know. People are more than happy to pimp their references out if not attending. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan_007 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Also I think away days are usually a great day out so are always in demand. I love them, see a new part of the country if you haven't been before, same as the stadium and just great banter. There's never really a huge allocation from most teams so it's first in best dressed unless you are STH even then it can be tough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabby0878 Posted March 26, 2014 Author Share Posted March 26, 2014 Looking for Palace or Swansea if possible. Annoyingly can't do City. Overall have just been surprised by the speed they have gone. I remember easily getting tickets in MON years when we were third and pushing for a top four finish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dn1982 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 It's something that needs looking at IMO. We seem to take initial allocations which sell out with weeks to spare. I know after the initial allocation the club is liable for any unsold tickets so can understand not wanting to lose money but they need to come up with some way of getting as many tickets as possible. I don't think the information about away tickets from the ticket office is good enough especially regarding rate of sale. Not sure what the answer is but I've missed out through lack of information in the past and have heard loads of non ST holders have the same problem getting tickets. Maybe a ST holder then away scheme non ST holder sort of system would help?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted March 26, 2014 Administrator Share Posted March 26, 2014 Perhaps if we could offer our visitors smaller allocations after the minimum then they might do the same in return? That way all clubs could buy smaller batches of additional tickets without the risk of getting caught with unsold tickets. In order for this to work the tickets might need to be put on sale sooner and people might have to commit to purchase earlier. If only we had a Supporters Consultation Group which a) discussed useful things, not pie flavours and invited people to attend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 the free travel thing, from what i've heard villa still has a fair bit left in the pot, the club has upset a fair few of the lions clubs this year, mainly thanks to dropping the 20 tickets for each game down to 6 (amongst a lot of other things) which like wainy said it isnt that much of a problem because you can use other members reference numbers, it is hard for the last away game of the season though my club is now pairing up with yank lions clubs, because our one only gets 6 tickets, but so do the Chicago, Illinois and seattle clubs, meaning that we can get 24 tickets for every away game the lions club IMO is a brilliant service but villa seem determined to make a mess of them, even from 2/3 years ago the link between the club and the clubs has dipped drastically, another 2/3 years of the same and they could break away and do their own thing not sure if this is going OT or not, the club made a mistake by not giving you villa cash for booking away tickets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 I think an away scheme for non ST holders would be a great idea, not sure how it could work but maybe you could sign up by paying a deposit of the eventual price for early access to a certain amount of games eg, 5/10/15/19. As a fan who doesn't live in Birmingham, going to a home match is like an away day for me anyway. If I can choose between an away match and a home game I'll choose the former every time (still try and go to VP a couple of times a season). I would be very interested in an away scheme style opportunity for non ST holders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Sorry if this is the wrong place to post (although have asked this question on specific away match threads) but I wanted to see if other fans have struggled to get hold of away tickets this season? Over the years I have never had any trouble getting tickets to away games (non ST holder, but strong booking history home and away), unless it was against the Blues or at a newly promoted team i.e. Blackpool (due to size of allocation and infrequency of fixture). Normally most games even go to general sale, however this season the vast majority of away days have sold out before non-season ticket holders get the chance to buy. I don’t want this to descend into an argument of who is the better fan, as I think everyone widely accepts that if you have a season ticket you should 100% get priority, I just wondered why we have sold out so much. I read somewhere that the Premiership was making clubs invest £500,000 for their away fans, and Villa had put on free travel to all games. Is this true? I presume our strong away performance this season has also helped. Wondered if anyone could shed any light on this? Would be gutted if my chances of going to away games were over for the foreseeable future. I would maybe suggest finding a local villa lions supporters club and join them as they often can buy a load of away tickets and put on coaches for them. The reason why we sell out away days as we are a well supported club in the middle of the country and have for years a better away than home record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dAVe80 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 (edited) Sorry if this is the wrong place to post (although have asked this question on specific away match threads) but I wanted to see if other fans have struggled to get hold of away tickets this season? Over the years I have never had any trouble getting tickets to away games (non ST holder, but strong booking history home and away), unless it was against the Blues or at a newly promoted team i.e. Blackpool (due to size of allocation and infrequency of fixture). Normally most games even go to general sale, however this season the vast majority of away days have sold out before non-season ticket holders get the chance to buy. I don’t want this to descend into an argument of who is the better fan, as I think everyone widely accepts that if you have a season ticket you should 100% get priority, I just wondered why we have sold out so much. I read somewhere that the Premiership was making clubs invest £500,000 for their away fans, and Villa had put on free travel to all games. Is this true? I presume our strong away performance this season has also helped. Wondered if anyone could shed any light on this? Would be gutted if my chances of going to away games were over for the foreseeable future. Not sure where you live, but it's worth joining your local supporters club. There is always an allocation for supporters clubs for most away games. EDIT: I see the dude above me already said the same thing. Edited March 27, 2014 by dAVe80 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supernova26 Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Our away support doesn't seem anywhere near as strong as last season. Haven't we been restricted at some grounds for being a bit nawty? And we haven't taken the full allocation on several occasions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Didn't we just just come 3rd behind utd and Liverpool in the best away fans poll by Barclays or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Didn't we just just come 3rd behind utd and Liverpool in the best away fans poll by Barclays or something? I knew we would be a top 4 side again under Lerner one day....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vandaq Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Very impressive by the fans. Glad we are doing so even if everything is not going well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Didn't we just just come 3rd behind utd and Liverpool in the best away fans poll by Barclays or something? maybe for noise but not numbers Our away support doesn't seem anywhere near as strong as last season. Haven't we been restricted at some grounds for being a bit nawty? And we haven't taken the full allocation on several occasions. I think our away support has been better this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Obviously the free travel has helped a lot but half the time were only having the initial allocation when in all honesty most of the time we should be having the full one. Its about consistency, I mean the ticket office have been right half the time not to take the larger one and half the time they have been wrong as a few away games have sold out weeks before. If we improve next season demand will be even bigger than this season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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